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Taue Shin'ichirou
Personality Charming when he wants to be, extroverted, and a lover of being the center of attention, these traits would be enough to make Shinichiro a dangerous sort of person, but its his contrarian streak that truly sets Taue apart. He thrives on rebelling against authority in ways that can't really be punished with more than a slap on the wrist, and likes to push boundaries wherever he can. He's fairly easy to get along with, albeit something of a hot-head and possessing patience qualities somewhere in the negatives. A lot of his outgoingness is to dispel people's potential image of him as some sort of stuffy family heir. He wants to be himself and live his life using his resources and advantages TO his advantage, and fights hard to prevent them from hamstringing him. This leads some people to accuse him of having First World Problems on a semi-frequent basis. Importantly, he dabbles (and sometimes more than dabbles) in partying and vice as a coping mechanism. Likely will be a well-known presence at Chitoku parties (and a disguised presence on off-campus events, thanks to an excellent fake ID and some rudimentary powers of disguise). He is also stubborn. Very stubborn. Extremely stubborn, to the point where he will continue to argue a position long after he's forgotten what it is because he doesn't want to lose. Biography Born in 2006 to parents Mio & Takeharu in the lap of one of Kobe's most powerful and prestigious families, life for Shinichiro Taue on the surface appears to be an easy ride. While this might have been true several decades ago, the state of modern Japan makes it increasingly unlikely that the youngest Taue will reap the benefits that his father, grandfather, and great grandfather did. The Taue Corporation dates back to the mid-1870s. Known for its strong influence in shipping of goods, the company remains today one of Japan's biggest import/export companies. The Corporation's success (as well as its mysterious survival in the wake of World War II and the American occupation) have brought great wealth and prestige to the Taue family. The wealthiest family in Kobe, they live in a mansion on the outskirts of town known to almost all of the locals. It is in that home that Shinichiro grew up. The only child of his parents (by choice), Shinichiro was raised from an early age to take over his father's role as the head of the Taue Corporation and the Taue family. As a young man, Shinichiro ate up such lessons, both going to school and being tutored and trained by his father and private educators on the role of his family, his family's company, and the future. It wasn't until becoming a teenager that the youngest Taue began to have second thoughts about his life. While he never wanted for anything financially or materially, he felt that his soul's yearnings were unfulfilled. He had few friends due to the hectic schedule his father had him on, and few social activities. Expressing this concern to his father, Takeharu backed off somewhat, allowing his son more time and space to grow. Sending Shinichiro off to a local private academy gave the young man his first true school experience. If nothing else, the discipline instilled by he Once Shinichiro was sixteen years old, however, his father filled him in on a number of the family secrets and traditions. Ever since Shinichiro's great grandfather, the male heir to the family was married in an arranged marriage to an American woman of comparable wealth and prestige. This marriage usually occurred around the eighteenth birthday of both prospective newlyweds. Confronted with this news, Shinichiro flipped out, lashing out at his father for what he considered a ridiculous, backwards tradition. This would not, however, be Shinichiro's only irritation with tradition – for the rise of neo-nationalism has put the Taue family in an increasingly tight spot. Locally in Kobe, many still greatly respect the Taue family, company, and name, but even in their home base, whispers about the family's marriage tradition and “lack of Japaneseness” have become public. The Japanese government even cancelled a contract with the Taue Corporation, expressing their “distaste with the Taue family's choice to send wealth outside of the country.” Learning this, and much, much more from his father, Shinichiro immediately felt trapped. As much as he lashed out at his father, hearing the Japanese government's actions made him almost want to marry an American just to spite the perceived short-sightedness of the politicians, and indeed, society in general. The year between turning sixteen and turning seventeen greatly changed the youngest Taue. He became increasingly distrustful of the direction Japanese society was going, and began to participate (under assumed names) on liberal message boards and forums. The stress of coping with his situation, and the growing belief that no matter what he did he would be stuck following the whims of SOME group or another, led him to start drinking in secret. Dalliances with marijuna and sex soon followed – the young man being careful, but the thrill of not being the proper heir by anyone's definition helped him get through a very dark patch of his life, and vice remains perhaps Shinichiro's best coping mechanism. By the time the young man was seventeen, his picture was plastered all over Japanese tabloids and newspapers – for his father had announced his son's betrothment to Jessica Anderson, an eighteen-year old heiress of an American oil tycoon from Texas. Completely blindsided by this news (and set upon by reporters who wanted both his opinion on the betrothment and to lash out at him for his family's policies), Shinichiro shut himself in his home, refusing to attend school or indeed leave his room until the marriage was called off. He got his wish – temporarily, with his father planning to take his son to America and meet Jessica in an effort to get his son's approval before officially re-announcing marriage plans. Thankfully for the Taues, their son was selected as one of the few elite to join Chitoku Academy. Seeing the Academy as a chance to bolster Shinichiro's “Japanese” credentials even as the family tries to straddle an increasingly impossible divide, the youngest Taue was plucked from his private academy before his final year and sent to Chitoku. And no, he's not particularly happy about it, just like he's not particularly happy about every other influence in his life right now. If nothing else, though, the Academy and its dorms provide him a safe haven from his family – even if he is about to be “indoctrinated” in the philosophies of Chitoku. Alignment (presumed) Chaos (slight). Taue has a need to determine his own path, and is not a fan of the society in which he's found himself, but this doesn't necessarily translate to resentment of society as a general concept. Category:Characters Category:PCs Category:Persona-users